


Kalos Kai Agathos

by BorisTheSpider



Series: Sidecut!Laurens/Lams College AU [2]
Category: 18th Century CE RPF, American Revolution RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baron von Steuben is everything good in this world, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Pride Parade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 14:59:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7227103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BorisTheSpider/pseuds/BorisTheSpider
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hamilton and Laurens go to a pride parade.</p><p>(Or, Hamilton and Laurens wander around and encounter various other historical figures who are also at the pride parade.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kalos Kai Agathos

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve frequently thought about how happy John Laurens would be if he were brought to our time and shown the great strides the LGBTQ community has made, and how improved the lives of queer folks are even compared to a few decades ago, but especially compared to his time.
> 
> The Pulse shooting this past weekend made me realize that we still have a long way to go. Laurens would be thrilled with the progress we’ve made, but it’s still not enough. We’re still not safe.
> 
> Anyway, here’s a pride parade.

Alexander, confetti billowing around him and with a bisexual pride flag painted onto his cheek, is glowing. John can’t stop staring at him.

Alexander must feel his gaze, because he turns toward him.

John looks away.

*

“My father would kill me if he knew I was going to a parade,” John says, collecting his paintbrushes from a drawer.

Alexander leans close and grins, “He doesn’t have to find out.” He deposits the face paints he’d just bought into John’s hands, “Now put those art skills of yours to work.”

“I’m pre-law, you know,” John says as he dips a paintbrush into the blue paint.

Alexander rolls his eyes. “ _Right_ , how could I forget,” he deadpans.

“Besides, how much skill could it take to paint lines of color in a square?” John leans close to paint a strip of blue on Alexander’s cheek.

Alexander huffs in his face. “I guess you’ll see once _I’m_ painting _your_ face.”

John’s eyes widen, “No, I’ve seen the ‘My Little Pony’ you drew last semester. I can’t have anything like that on my face.”

“It was _not_ a ‘My Little Pony’! It was just a unicorn.”

John leans back to retrieve the purple paint, and as he leans back in he says, “It had a _flower cutie mark_.”

“It’s a symbol of nobility!”

“Okay,” John smothers a laugh. “Now stop talking, or my lines’ll be crooked.”

That shuts Alexander up until John announces that he’s finished and allows Alexander to go check it in the mirror.

“Your turn,” Alexander says when he comes back, dramatically popping open the cap on the red paint.

*

“Where are we going?”

“It should be just up here.” Alexander taps his phone a couple times, “Oh, we go left here.”

They go left. And, really, with how loud it is once they get there, Laurens is surprised he wasn’t able to hear it from their apartment.

John isn’t really sure what to do here, but Alexander is beaming and seems to fit effortlessly into the crowd. Of course, Alexander has a little more experience in things like this than he does.

John’s just looking around while trying to stay in step beside Alexander, who seems to have a destination in mind, until Alexander bumps into John’s shoulder to get his attention and points, saying, “There’s Eliza and Theo.”

Elizabeth Schuyler and Theodosia Bartow are standing behind a table dispensing water bottles and condoms to passers-by. They’re old hat at this and they had, in fact, counseled John when he was working through things himself, two years ago.

When the two women spot John and Alexander through the crowd, they come out from behind the table to initiate a group hug and catch up.

“Alexander Hamilton,” Eliza exclaims, wrapping her arms around the three of them, “I haven’t seen you in months! Where’ve you been hiding?”

Alexander shrugs, “Lots of extra work to do since Washington’s taken me under his wing.”

“I hope you’ve been taking care of him, John,” Theodosia says. “Reminding him to eat and all that.”

John laughs, “Trust me, he doesn’t need me to remind him.”

Alexander punches John’s arm, “Yeah, laugh it up fuzzball.”

“No, really, the other day I brought home practically the entire Chinese buffet, supposed to last the whole week – it lasted two days. _And_ —“

“Oh, John, not this again,” Alexander groans.

“ _And_ he ate all the orange chicken before I could get any.”

They dissolve into laughter, and Eliza and Theo update them on a guy in their Human Sexuality course who won’t stop arguing with them in the middle of class discussions.

“Seriously, I have no idea why the guy’s even in that class,” Eliza says, getting incensed. “He literally said to me, in the middle of class,” she puts on a mock-deep voice, “ _I could totally lure you away from your girlfriend with my dick_. And Theo was sitting _right next to me!_ ”

“I hate dicks!” Theodosia yells, to the cheers of a few lesbians passing by.

“Well, I can’t say the same,” Alexander says, smirking, “but I do know I hate that guy.”

John agrees wholeheartedly.

“Oh!” Eliza says, “We’ve got to get back to the table, but it was great catching up with you guys.”

“Yeah, and don’t disappear again, okay? I don’t care how much work you have; your mental well-being comes first,” Theo says, gripping them both by the shoulders.

They nod and say their goodbyes and walk away as the girls return to tending the table, and then John says, “Didn’t Laf say he was coming?”

Alexander pulls out his phone and says, “Yeah, he sent me a text saying he might be late. Something about getting information from ‘James’?”

“James who?”

“One sec,” Alexander taps at his phone and a second later he says, “James Armistead? Laf sent him to spy on some people, I guess. It all sounds very dramatic.”

“Never heard of him.”

*

Lafayette shows up eventually, somehow finding John and Alexander in the massive crowd.

“ _Mes amis_ , you will not believe the conspiracy that James has unearthed,” he says, breathing hard because apparently he ran all this way.

John raises his eyebrows, prompting Lafayette to speak.

“You know of the British student, Cornwallis, yes?”

Alexander and John both nod.

“Well, he is planning to go home over the summer. But I have just heard that my countryman, Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur--!” he falters. “Eh, you may know him as Rochambeau.”

They nod again.

Lafayette continues, “I have just heard that he plans to ask Cornwallis to stay with him in Virginia for the summer. Evidently a friend of his has a yacht currently docked in a place called Yorktown.”

“Okay,” Alexander says, slightly lilting at the end as if asking a question.

Lafayette looks stunned. “You do not understand the implications of this?”

John and Alexander look at each other.

“Um, no,” says John.

“Also,” Alexander says, “how is this a conspiracy?”

“I did not mean that seriously. It merely sounded more dramatic,” Lafayette turns his nose up. “Although, if you understand the implications, you may be able to see how it could be called a ‘conspiracy,’ under a certain definition of the word. I do not have time to explain the intricacies of this affair. I must take my leave, unfortunately; I only came here to tell you because it was easier than sending a text.”

“Okay,” Alexander says, “see ya, Laf.”

“I regret I cannot stay and partake in the merriment, but duty calls,” he pulls out his phone and pecks them both on their (unpainted) cheeks. “ _Au revoir!_ ”

*

After wandering around for a bit, they spot a parade float upon which two men are grinding against each other while dozens of other people dance around them.

As they get closer, they recognize the taller man as Benjamin Tallmadge.

Just months ago, Tallmadge and his friend Nathan Hale had led (and won) a debate arguing in favor of women’s rights, and in return received dozens, possibly hundreds, of propositions from women all over campus. Ben never seemed very interested in their attention, though, and judging from the way he was grinding against the shorter, scruffy-looking man—

“Is that Caleb Brewster?” John blurts.

Well, John understands now why Ben never accepted any of the women’s offers.

“He was in my Outdoor Skills class last semester,” John says, to explain his recognizing the man.

Alexander snorts, “I still don’t understand why you took that class.”

“You never know what’ll happen,” John shrugs. “Anyway, Caleb was insanely good. He could probably run off into the mountains and never come back and be perfectly happy.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think Tallmadge would like living in the mountains very much.”

*

Later, confetti rains from the sky and Alexander watches the parade and John watches Alexander.

*

John hears a champagne bottle pop open, and turns his head to see Professor Steuben, the big German man who teaches European and military history. He’s dressed in a gaudy old military uniform, looking like Napoleon (if Napoleon’s uniform were rainbow), complete with bicorn hat.

They make eye contact, and Steuben grins hugely, abandoning the people who had been attempting to converse with him to trudge forward and envelope John in a hug.

John had taken one of Steuben’s classes before he’d come to terms with his leanings, and seeing a big, strong, undeniably masculine man who was nevertheless gay had helped John shed some of the stereotypes he’d been raised to believe, and the toxic mindset he had had because of them.

“My boy!” Steuben exclaims, “I am so happy to see you here at last.” Turning to Alexander, he says, “And who is this?” He returns his gaze to John with a knowing look.

“Uh,” John stammers, “this is my friend, Alexander Hamilton.”

“Ah, a _friend_ , very well,” Steuben offers his hand for Alexander to shake.

“It’s wonderful to meet you, sir,” Alexander says, shaking Steuben’s hand. “John’s told me a lot about you.”

“Has he?” Steuben raises an eyebrow at John, who flushes, “All good, I hope.”

“Of course!” Alexander gets serious rather suddenly, “You were there for him when he needed it, and I want to thank you for that.”

Tears begin to well up in Steuben’s eyes. “It was the least I could do for the poor boy.”

John flushes even harder and coughs to break the silence. He doesn’t want to make anyone cry at a pride parade, for goodness’ sake!

Steuben dabs at his eyes and turns around to briefly glance at the crowd he left behind, “Ah, my people request my presence. I hope you both have a wonderful day.”

As they turn to leave, Alexander says, “I really do hope he knows what a difference he made.”

“I’m sure he does,” John says. He throws an arm over Alexander’s shoulders, “Thanks for caring.”

Alexander beams up at John.

*

“Kiss for the camera!”

John turns to see a woman with a camera pointed at them. He hadn’t taken his arm off of Alexander’s shoulders while they’d been walking, so he understands how she could make this mistake. Though, he could use this to finally make his move… _No, John_ , he can’t believe he would betray his best friend’s trust like this. To think these thoughts about Alexander is – what? Is it really bad, or is that his father talking? He’s frozen for what feels like hours, but is really only a few milliseconds, struggling to make a decision.

Until Alexander makes the decision for him.

While John had been incapacitated by indecision, Alexander had taken hold of John’s jaw to tilt his head down, leaned up on his toes, and brought their lips together in a move so brash only Alexander Hamilton would even think of doing it.

The woman snaps a photo, and as they part John sees her wink at them. “That’ll go on the website, if you’re okay with that,” she says.

John nods, dazed, and she rushes off to find another couple.

Alexander raises an eyebrow, “So much for your father not finding out.”

“Yeah, well,” John looks down at his feet and grins shyly. “It was worth it.”

Alexander anxiously bounces on the balls of his feet. “What was that, John?”

John looks up and says, “It was worth it.”

Alexander gapes at him, “You mean to tell me that I’ve been pining for _months_ , and it was this easy?”

“ _You’ve_ been pining? _I’ve_ been—“ he stops. “Wait, did you just call me ‘easy’?”

“Shut up, John, I’m having a crisis.”

“A crisis?” John asks, and he’s worried now, because what if Alexander thinks it’s a mistake? What if he’s going to dismiss John as a bad kisser and go find someone else?

“Yeah, a huge crisis,” he looks John in the eye and says, completely straight-faced, “We could’ve kissed so much, but we haven’t been kissing because we’re both pining idiots.”

“Oh,” John breathes out in relief.

Alexander’s brows furrow. “Are you relieved? What, did you think I’d think you were a bad kisser and just leave?”

“What?” John leans back dramatically. “No! Of course not! I don’t think you’re that shallow,” John scoffs.

Alexander opens his mouth to respond but his phone chirps. It’s a text from Lafayette, saying, “It’s about time.” He attached the picture of their kiss.

“Damn, how’d they get that up so fast?” John says.

Alexander snorts, “That’s what she said.” He gasps, “No, that’s what you _will_ say!”

“Ugh, shut up, Alex,” John says, and kisses him.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never been to a pride parade, so I hope there are no glaring inaccuracies. (I want to go this year but 'round these parts we do them in September/October because June is hot af, and that time of the year is more busy for me because it's the middle of the semester.)
> 
> (If I go I totally wanna wear what Steuben's wearing in this.)
> 
> Also, I'm so sorry for "Cornwallis/Rochambeau" but I really wanted Armistead to at least be mentioned (still angry at myself for not actually getting him in the fic!!) and that required me to somehow convert the whole Yorktown mess into a modern, non-warfare version and that's what ended up happening.
> 
> [Title from the Greek phrase Laurens wrote in [this letter](http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-02-02-0546), which means, basically, "good citizen" but was also used as a sort of gay catchphrase to mean, e.g., "good boyfriend." In the letter, he's conflicted between the two (accepting the nomination as envoy to France would make him a good citizen, but nominating Hamilton instead would make him a good boyfriend. He ended up urging Congress to send Hamilton instead, but Congress insisted that Laurens go, so he did.) As far as I know (I don't know Greek), the proper way to write it would be "kalos kagathos" because of something similar to a contraction? But Laurens didn't spell it that way, and I think "kalos kai agathos" looks better anyway.]


End file.
